travel

Yes, we spent Saturday in Turin again. We parked directly underneath the Piazza Vittorio Veneto. The piazza is one of the most beautiful Italian inventions. The closest English equivalent would be a town square or marketplace, which would indeed be a fair description of a piazza in a little Italian village like the one where we live (although in Southern California they would use the Spanish word plaza, or even actually the Italian piazza, but what they would mean is a glorified strip mall). A piazza in a large Italian city is a glorious open area in the heart of the city.… Read more

My city mouse beat my country mouse into submission yesterday and we spent the day in Turin. Actually, we went ostensibly to see General Conference, which in Italy begins at six at night. But we drove up several hours early. We happened to park around the corner from the Mole Antonelliana. Supposedly, it is the center of the occult and paranormal in Turin, and like the Withywindle Valley, “the center from which all the queerness comes, as it were.” (Using the word in Tolkien’s original sense, of course, no offense to those who have appropriated it otherwise. We’re talking Turin here, not London.)… Read more